One of the most requested features by The Unstandard WordPress theme users was a easier method for photo thumbnails on front pages. After exploring a few options including using the baked in WordPress media image re-sizer, Raul’s code snippet to be added to functions.php, and various plugins and scripts, I decided to go the route of Darren Hoyt’s timthumb script for a official theme update.

Old method vs. updated method

Prior to the update, cropping and uploading two versions of a photo was required in order to prevent skewed or distorted images. For every post published, two photos were needed: 1 x large hero and 1 x smaller alternative. 

For some, the flexibility of being able to specify two unique assets worked. That is why I have not changed that aspect of the theme. What is different is that cropping images prior to uploading is no longer necessary. Cropping, thumbnail creation, and caching is now handled by the timthumb.php script.

Users can still specify two unique images – one for the hero (if the post is the newest on the front page), and a second for older posts. Alternatively, users can upload one image 600px wide or greater then copy ‘n paste the same URI for the file in both custom fields.

Visit the download page for info or edit your existing theme manually using the instructions below.

Adding timthumb.php support manually

First, visit Darren Hoyt’s site to grab a copy of timthumb.php. Next, visit your theme directory using a (s)FTP client and create a new folder called ’scripts’. Within that, create another directory and name it ‘cache’. Check to make sure that both newly created folders are set to CHMOD 777 (so that timthumb can write to those folders).

If you’re using The Unstandard, open index.php and look for the following code:

<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><img src="<?php echo $img_src; ?>" /></a>

Replace that with this new snippet which integrates the newly added timthumb script:

<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">
<?php if ( is_first_post($post->ID) ) { ?>
	<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/scripts/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo $img_src; ?>&w=593&h=225&zc=1" width="593" height="225" />
<?php } else { ?>
	<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/scripts/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo $img_src; ?>&w=293&h=150&zc=1" width="293" height="150" />
<?php } ?>
</a>

What changed? The modified code for The Unstandard users does one of two things:

1. If the post is calling the larger hero image, use timthumb to create a thumbnail using the value set for ‘lead_image’.
2. If the post is not the latest, use timthumb to create a thumbnail using the value set for ’secondary_image’.

The script accepts a couple different parameters including height, width, zoom crop, and quality. Find out more here.

Caveats relying on timthumb

The only issue using timthumb to automatically create thumbnails is that image files must be hosted on your own site. Images hosted externally will not be thumbnailed and cached.

Note that if you plan on using the same image URI for both ‘lead_image’ and ’secondary_image’, it is better to cover your bases and upload a image equal to or greater than 600px to account for zooming / resizing.

Can I choose how my profile or group page looks to other people? At the moment, selecting a theme will change how FriendFeed looks to you, and other people looking at your profile page will see it in whatever theme they’ve chosen. We know how important it is to be able to customize how your profile page or group page looks to the outside world, and while that isn’t part of today’s release, it’s on the roadmap.

A little strange. But hey, at least full theme integration is on the roadmap. I took a stab at the CSS only requirement for the themes but didn’t quite make it. Darn. If you are interested in following new theme releases, follow the FriendFeed Themes account. Release custom CSS stylesheet support and that theme directory will really take off.

If I worked primarily on a PC, Microsoft Visio would be one of the most used apps in my dock Start Menu. I can’t speak from personal experience, but based on the features (and from what others have told me), Visio is a solid piece of software – especially if your daily tasks involve creating rich visuals, UI’s, and prototypes. If I did work with Visio, I would definitely check out some of the available add-ons like the rapid prototyping tool or the updated sketch GUI elements (both via Wireframes Magazine).

Microsoft Visio Standard 2007 for FREE

Because I don’t run Windows unless I am testing against Internet Explorer, this copy of Visio Standard 2007 is of no value to me. But, I know someone else out there could sure use a legitimate copy minus the $200 retail asking price. Requirements for entry are simple:

1. Some short blurb on how Visio can help you at home / work
2. Working email in the comment form (unless you don’t care about winning)

Winner will be randomly selected from the comment list. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Entries for consideration will be accepted up until July 17th.

The iPhone 3GS is a great upgrade from the original iPhone 3G. The processor bump, memory boost, and 3.2 megapixel camera with tap-to-zoom & video recording have made me fall in love with the iPhone all over again. If you’re contemplating or have made the jump from the iPhone 2G, the comparison between the two shows a definite performance difference. However, a bug has slipped by undetected by the quality inspection…

The sound bytes you might hear

Your handset is screaming for attention, albeit at a frequency you may not ever hear. It’s been a few days since I took home my shiny iPhone 3GS and had it not been for an early post over on Boy Genius Report, I would have continued thinking that Apple had outdone the last iPhone – problem free. Unfortunately, a flaw was found. A flaw that neither sight or touch could detect. 

Lock your screen using the sleep button, send an SMS message, send a email, receive a calendar alert, or hear any OS related sounds. Depending on ambient noise levels or how well your ears can hear, your delicate eardrums may detect a high frequency note lasting roughly 3-4 seconds at the tail end of system sound file(s).

During the day, this high frequency isn’t an issue. At night while I lay in bed sending off a few emails or text messages, the sound is much more noticeable. It’s one of those things that if you weren’t aware of it to begin with, you would never notice. But now that you know it exists, you’re always listening for it. Or at least that’s the problem I have now.

Genius Bar associate(s) acknowledge sloppy sound files

Based on the discussion on the Apple Support boards and a handful of other posts on the net, I had a small sliver of hope that the issue was hardware related. Thinking this, I dropped my info into the Apple Concierge station locking in some time with the geniuses behind the Genius Bar.

After explaining the audio conundrum, my phone was taken to the back for a little "quiet" alone time – away from the hoardes of people snatching up MacBook Pro’s or iMac’s. What economy woes? Five minutes later: "Yes I hear it. I tested a few other 3GS phones back there and they all do the same". 

So no handset replacement. Not a big deal. At least the Genius Bar representative tested [multiple phones] and confirmed that 3GS handsets have a problem. The conclusion – sloppy audio files. Hopefully Apple will release an update in the near future or announce that the first production batch of phones are a little sour. I was told the solution was to keep the phone on vibrate (which works) or ignore it. Decisions decisions. Keep the phone on silent? Or live with a tiny little voice screaming?

Can you hear the ‘eeeeeee’?

The sound is there. The question is can you hear it? Cast your vote then spread the word.

Personally, I’m leaning more towards Transformers as my favorite of the two. Original video embeds were from Vimeo but were taken down.

Understand the WordPress permalink

The first time you install WordPress, your site is setup with a few default settings. One of which is the generic nondescript permalink:

http://yourblog.com/?p=123

Ideally, one of the first changes you should make to your site after a clean install is to update the permalink structure to something a little friendlier:

http://yourblog.com/year/month/this-blog-post

To update your permalink settings navigate to Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks. Note that the Apache mod_rewrite module must be enabled on your server and .htaccess file must be writable. Irregardless of any changes you make to the permalink structure, your posts will always retain their original unique Post-ID. In the example above, the Post-ID would be 123. 

With pretty permalinks enabled, you can still see this unique ID when you hover on the URLs inside of your Dashboard (check your browser status bar). In the above screenshot, you can see the unique ID at the end of the URL post=2071. This unique ID is what we will use to generate the shortened version of a page URL when Tweeting a page.

Maximize your 140 character limit on Twitter

Twitter enforces a 140 character limit. Do you really want a long URL eating up valuable characters? See this example if I were to share a link from IBoughtaMac:

http://iboughtamac.com/2009/04/02/busy-bees-making-money-with-on-the-job/

If I wanted to share the link via Twitter, I would only have 67 characters to add any of my thoughts regarding the post:

Imagine if the URL had been shortened to something like:

http://iboughtamac.com/s/1352

The shortened URL (just an example Post-ID) turns the previous 67 remaining characters into 111 characters of free space. You maintain your personal "brand" – something you lose when you shorten URLs using a service like TinyURL.

First step: Modify your .htaccess file

Even with a custom permalink enabled (what your visitors see), WordPress will continue to redirect any URLs which point to the default ?p=Post-ID properly. We’re going to use this to our advantage when sharing shortened URLs. Using an FTP client, open your .htaccess file. Invisible files are hidden by default for most FTP clients so adjust your view settings if necessary. If you have customized your permalink structure, you will already have one of these files on your server. If not, simply create one now. Enter the following somewhere near the top:

# Redirect posts based on post-id
RewriteEngine On 
RewriteRule ^s/([0-9]+)$ ?p=$1 [R=301,L]

This rule tells Apache to redirect URLs like http://blog.com/s/1 and http://blog.com/s/9999 to http://blog.com/?p=1 and http://blog.com/?p=9999. Of course, because your WordPress site will identify posts based on their unique ID, a visitor will immediately see that shortened URL redirect to the proper friendly version http://blog.com/2009/04/20/my-new-dog-named-pinocchio-from-europe.

Second step: Add your ‘Tweet This’ link

Where and when you present a ‘Tweet This’ link is up to you. The raw HTML + PHP is this little nugget:

<a class="share-via-twitter" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Reading: <?php the_title(); ?> <?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/s/<?php the_ID(); ?>" title="Tweet this post">Tweet This</a>

With a little bit of CSS and Komodo Media’s awesome mini social icon set, you can transform the plain link to look like a button.

Extras: Non-Twitter social links

You’ll notice that these links do not make use of the shortened version of a URL. There really isn’t a reason to shorten your site URLs when sharing through these services because 140 characters maximum is not enforced.

Digg This

<a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=<?php echo get_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>" title="Digg this">Digg This</a>

Add to Delicious

<a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=<?php echo get_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>" title="Add this page to Delicious">Add to Delicious</a>

StumbleUpon

<a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=<?php echo get_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>" title="Stumble this page">Stumble This</a>

What I was surprised to find was that FamilyMap acts and feels like a completely different service offered to subscribers. Rather than redirected to your online Account Management at http://wireless.att.com/ to register, you do so on the FamilyMap site. Signing up requires 1) an AT&T phone number, 2) name and social security number verification of the account holder, and 3) the phone numbers associated with the account to track.

A service for cautious parents

FamilyMap [undeniably] targets the needs of parents who prefer to know where their children are at any given moment. Here’s a peak at the service tracking myself (for those that are curious):

Curious to know where Derek is at any given moment? After logging into FamilyMap, you would simply select "locate" underneath the picture and phone number of the individual you wish to track. FamilyMap will prompt you with a modal dialog explaining the fact that the result may take up to 2 minute or longer. Once the individual is located a small pin is placed on the map.

The only options offered after locating an individual are to place a bookmark or compose a message to send via SMS. 

Because of the wait time required to track an individual, it is probably a good idea to setup a series of scheduled checks which FamilyMap will keep a historical record of.

Up to 2 minutes or more for results

A lot can happen in 2+ minutes when it comes to tracking a handset. The accuracy of the result while tracking myself through the service were quite disappointing; especially when you compare the results against something like Google Maps Mobile + Latitude (free). My personal tests took anywhere between 3-4 minutes per request.

Lack of main Account Management integration

FamilyMap really should be a integrated with the main account holders home page. Unless AT&T has future plans to turn FamilyMap into more of a &qout;social" service, it should be integrated as a separate tab inside a users Account Management page. Lack of account integration means that in order to cancel the service, you need to call customer service directly to request the change. With a monthly charge of $9.99 for two lines, or $14.99 for up to 5, the service is not something you want to forget to cancel.

Another attempt by AT&T for consumer accessible mobile tracking

In early 2002, AT&T wireless offers subscribers a pay for service aimed at helping track friends who were near your current location using cell tower triangulation. The tracking service – Find Friends – was offered as part of mMode wireless add-on with technology powered by Kivera. A text message notification was sent to an individual whenever a friend requested knowledge of their whereabouts.

Consumer cellphone tracking services will continue to improve

Verizon Wireless offers a similar service for parents called Chaperon while T-Mobile has yet to offer a version for their customers. There is no question that the market for easily accessible consumer cellphone tracking services is out there. People are willing to pay a monthly in exchange for any time [discrete] real-time tracking information.

With free services like Google Latitude, Brighkite, and Fire Eagle pushing the technology, paid for services offered by carriers have much room for improvement.

What are your thoughts? Are tracking services offered by carriers good or bad? From a parental standpoint, if you enabled the feature to track your children, would you tell them? 

1. Rob Abbott – TextMate + Versions (claimed)
2. Mark Nichols – TextMate + Adium (claimed)
3. Eric DeLabar – Coda + iTunes (claimed)

Winners, please get in touch by April 27 to claim your license. Drop a note in the comments or use the contact form.

Hardrives aren’t fail proof though. Everyone will experience a faulty drive some time in their life. If your livelihood revolves around your computer data, your [redundant] physical backups should be supplemented with off-site backups hosted securely online. 

The original option: JungleDisk + Amazon S3

Prior to receiving notice of the latest offering from Backblaze, my online backup routine consisted of a small desktop utility called JungleDisk + Amazon S3.

The duo performed as expected with my monthly bill in the neighborhood of $11 per month ($2 / mo. for JungleDisk + ~$14 / mo. for S3 hosting). File management was done through a system folder with the added convenience of a web based UI for an extra $1 per month (JungleDisk Plus).

The new option: Backblaze flat rate + convenient data restore options

Why the change to Backblaze? With JungleDisk + Amazon S3, the monthly cost for storing important data could increase over time as my usage requirements changed. With Backblaze, each computer is a flat $5 per month for unlimited automatic secure online backups. 

Assuming my current habits continued unchanged, a year of unlimited Amazon S3 backups would cost ~$132. A year of unlimited Backblaze backups would cost $60. If you prepay a full year, you get 2 months free bringing 12 months of backups down to $50 per year. On top of the lower cost, Backblaze offers three methods for restoring backups or historical versions of backups:

1. Web restore via the desktop client or web browser. Archives will be queued up, zipped, and an email notification sent out when the download is ready.
2. 4.2GB physical media DVD copies burned and shipped to you via Fedex.
3. 500GB physical media Western Digital USB hardrive. Data is moved to a external drive and shipped to you via Fedex.

Although it is much more convenient to have immediate access to file backups, it’s reassuring to have data retrieval options. There are small handful of online subscription services that I believe are worth paying for, and Backblaze has been added to the list.

Similar to Apple’s Time Machine backups, Backblaze is constantly running in the background – accessible via the menu bar (OS X), or the task tray (Windows). You specify the folders to backup, create ignore rules, and control the bandwidth allotted for background data transfer. Screenshots below are of the OS X client but similar functionality / settings are found in the Windows client as well.

Backblaze Backup Settings

Backblaze settings status view of my initial backup progress initiated after installation.

You have the option of expanding on the default ignore rules initially setup out of the box. Note that Backblaze will backup any external drives you have connected via USB or Firewire (so make sure your exclusion rules are correct).

Backblaze offers its customers secure peace of mind when it comes to backing up data. The desktop utility encrypts data locally before transmitting (via a secure connection) where it is stored encrypted. Privacy nuts even have the option of providing their own private key.

Access your online backups from anywhere any time

Included with the Backblaze subscription is access to a web based file manager accessible from anywhere with an internet browser. Need access to an old backup while you’re at a friends house? Visit your Backblaze user account to initiate a folder or file restore and wait for the email notification letting you know the download is ready.

With constant backups, it’s easy to make multiple changes to files over the course of a week and have those changes updated in Backblaze. Fortunately, the service allows you to look at up to 4 weeks of file revisions. 

File restores are initiated through the web interface. You select your restore method, select the folders or files that you wish to restore, and confirm your selection. Backblaze maintains a history of your restores up to 7 days after the request is submitted.

Backups locally, in the "cloud", and peace of mind

I have been burned too many times in the past due to accident, file management carelessness, or hardware failure. Backblaze is the off site supplement to my redundant backups at home, the office, or on the road.

• Background backups on my home network with a Lacie drive connected to an Airport Extreme managed with Time Machine.
• Manual full disk clones with SuperDuper to multiple Western Digital Passports. Previously discussed: Practice safe computing, use a clone.
• Psuedo-backups with Dropbox – geared more for file sharing and quick syncing.
• Background backups with Backblaze for important files, photographs, and documents.

If have yet to establish a regular backup routine, or are simply looking for a little more peace of mind with secure online backups, I highly recommend trying Backblaze. $5 per month for unlimited backups + multiple file restore options is hard to pass up. To sweeten the unlimited backups deal, Backblaze will pick 25 random [new users] who sign up today and offer unlimited backups for an entire year for free.

Note: If you are an existing Backblaze subscriber and wish to support / promote the online backup service while receiving referral credit – https://www.backblaze.com/partners.htm.

http://localhost/~Username

You can organize server files and test sites on your computer using URLs like:

http://yourdomain.site, http://this.isatest.local, http://absolute.dev

So if this is your first experiment setting up virtual hosts, download a trial of VirtualHostX ($9) or win 1 of 3 free licenses (details below).

Easy virtual hosts configuration with VirtualHostX

VirtualHostX is the easiest way to develop sites locally without manual server configuration.

• Automatically configures your Mac’s web server settings
• Supports custom Apache directives
• Backup / Restore your web server settings
• Compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard

Simply put, VirtualHostX is a GUI alternative to manually editing your "hosts" and "httpd-vhosts.conf" files without needing to fire up the Terminal.

Once you have decided on a URL and pointed VirtualHostX to the directory where your site files are stored, the app requests your password in order to restart Apache and you are ready for development.

Win 1 of 3 free VirtualHostX licenses

I encourage you to download a trial version. In the meantime, I’m giving away 3 free licenses compliments of Tyler H. for 5thirtyone.com readers. So how can you win a free license?

What two pieces of software would you need [without a doubt] in order to efficiently get work done on a daily basis? Share your two pieces of software and reasons why. Three comments will be picked at random to receive a free VirtualHostX license. 

If you don’t win a complimentary license, the $9 registration fee is well worth the convenience and time saved setting up new virtual hosts.